N.J. residents must show ‘justifiable need’ to get permit to carry handgun in public, court agrees

New Jersey’s law requiring residents show a “justifiable need” to get a permit to carry a handgun in public was upheld by a federal appeals court.

A mandate that residents demonstrate an “urgent necessity for self-protection” to get authorization to publicly carry a handgun doesn’t run afoul of U.S. constitutional protections of the right to bear firearms, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled Wednesday.

The ruling comes more than four months after the U.S. Supreme Court rebuffed a similar Second Amendment challenge to New York state’s requirement that people wishing to carry a handgun in public show a special need for protection.